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JANUARY | FEBRUARY 2018 RELAX, SHOP & PLAY AT WAIKOLOA BEACH RESORT E V E N T JAN N W E FEB S C A R L E N D A WaikoloaBeachResort.com Mr. Fantasy Resort Christopher Bagwell Hemmeter, 1939-2003 hristopher B. Hemmeter was one of the Aloha State’s most charismatic hotel developers in the C 1970s and 1980s, and his influence is perhaps nowhere more evident than at Waikoloa Beach Resort. It was here that one of his loftiest dreams took shape: the Hyatt Regency Waikoloa. Nowadays operated as Hilton Waikoloa Village, when the sprawling 1,240-room resort opened in September 1988, it was the largest and — built at a cost of $360 million — the most expensive hotel ever built in the islands. But Hemmeter, who passed away in 2003, was never one to think small. When you spoke with him — whether LEFT TO RIGHT: Hemmeter, with Darryl Hartley-Leonard, President of Hyatt Hotels; you were a bank executive considering funding one of his Pat Cowell, regional Vice President Hyatt Hawaii; and Thos Rohr, President and CEO of massive projects or a journalist writing a story — you’d Waikoloa Land Company, at the opening of the Hyatt Regency Waikoloa in 1988. listen to his vision and soon come to believe that what he was describing was not only possible, but the best thing ever. It was where guests could swim with dolphins, a Disneyland-style mono- his gift to dream big and make you dream big right alongside him. rail, boats traveling on a waterway to transport awe-struck guests A resort, he said in 1990, “must create a sense of experience. to their rooms, a crashing waterfall under which one could walk, People want more than a room and a bed. Today’s traveler is look- multiple swimming pools, public spaces filled with Polynesian and ing for revival, for newness, for the unexpected. The impact must Asian art, and themed restaurants with authentic Italian, Chinese, be greater than the sum of the many parts.” Japanese, and other cuisines of the world. At Waikoloa, the “experience” Hemmeter sought to impart was Opening day dignitaries included “Hawaii” author James Michener, created with a combination of art, elegance, and downright fun. singers Dionne Warwick and Burt Bacharach, and business and social Originally sketched on a cocktail napkin, plans included a lagoon elites from around the state. It was one of 1988’s most lavish events. CONTINUED ON P.2 Asian Fest Lava Lava Beach Club A Bay Grill 6 EVENTS CALENDAR 1O STAY IN STYLE 11 WAIKOLOA DINING GUIDE CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 THE GATHERING PLACE THE GATHERING THE GATHERING PLACE NEWS OF THE KOHALA COAST THE GATHERING PLACE OF THE FROM THE INTRODUCTION: W K C’ KOHALA COAST “ ” . Remnants of a once-thriving village next to the In December, a new coffee table book on fi shponds fronting `Anaeho`omalu Bay date well before Captain James Cook’s arrival in 1778. Waikoloa Beach Resort, “THE GATHERING Today, Waikoloa Beach Resort is a bustling eco- nomic engine for Hawai`i Island, hosting tens PLACE of the Kohala Coast,” was published. of thousands of visitors each year who come to In thoroughly researched text and artful enjoy the many accommodations choices, rich cultural activities, authentic music and dance per- photography, the book details the history formances, family activities, diverse and delicious cuisine, abundance of shopping options, water of the land on which the resort is built from BEACH RESORT WAIKOLOA sports, two memorable golf courses, and prime real estate opportunities. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: its earliest days and follows the vision and Many bright minds and much hard work went George Fuller is a longtime resident of the into the planning and development of Waikoloa Hawaiian Islands, now living in Waimea, development of the property through Beach Resort. Without the vision and dedication in the cool upcountry of Hawai`i Island. of Ronald Boeddeker, Thos Rohr, Christopher B. His articles on Hawai`i have appeared the present. Chapters focus on the many Hemmeter, and many, many others, Waikoloa Hemmeter was known in numerous publications over the years, people whose hard work and dedication would not be the success story it is today. This for his fantastic flair, including National Geographic Books, book introduces you to many of those people and and animalsThe and Wall Street unusual Journal, The Losart. Angeles Coming to one of Hemmeter’s made Waikoloa the successful resort it is tells the fascinating stories of how the resort came adding dramatic Times, Time Magazine, GOLF Magazine, to fruition and has evolved over the years into one architectural elements hotels, you didn’tand many others.just He get is also a presidenthotel but an experience.” today, as well as the cultural, culinary, and of the most delightful and memorable destinations and editorial director of Flagship Custom in the Aloha State. to his resorts, as Some criticsPublishing. complained that although guests got an recreational events that have been held WAIKOLOA BEACH RESORT well as fascinating collections of Asian experience, it wasn’t an authentic Hawaiian experience. Jerry over the years. A timeline is included, as and Pacific art. Hulse, then editor of the L.A. Times travel section, famously well as fascinating details about Waikoloa compared the Hyatt Regency Waikoloa to Disneyland. “What Village, which was originally part of the The cover's aerial view from above A-Bay shows the we have here is another Anaheim,” he wrote in 1990. “All that’s whole plan. resort's many components and expansive reach. missing is Sleeping Beauty’s Castle, a paddle wheeler and the “My dad was a dreamer,” says Hemmeter’s son, Christopher R. Matterhorn.” Hemmeter, who was given the task of procuring the art collection Hemmeter, undeterred by such criticism, would always for the hotels. “I was just out of school, and my dad had this idea; he reply, “And look how successful Disneyland is.” had seen some Chinese Imperial art when he was on a trip, and he He would also frequently point to the flamingo pink Royal waikoloa_book_dustjacket_082917.indd 1 9/14/17 1:53 PM wanted me to go to Asia to collect and commission works we could Hawaiian Hotel on Waikīkī Beach. “That also caused quite a stir CHAPTER 5 | GOLF CHAPTER 7 | SURFING display around the resorts.” when it first opened,” he’d say. “Critics said it wasn’t Hawaiian PAR IN SPORT From the artisans of Bali to the bronze foundries of Bangkok enough, and now it’s the iconic hotel in Waikīkī.” PARADISE OF KINGS to the marble quarries of Yang Ping — a small village near the Hemmeter left Hawai`i in 1990 to pursue development t is easy to think that golf came recently to the Hawaiian Islands. PON ONE THING I AM RESOLVED: THE snark SHALL NOT SAIL FROM The magnificently groomed courses we play today, such as Waikoloa Kings’ and HONOLULU UNTIL I, too, wing my heels with the swiftness of the sea, Beach, have come to define Hawai`i golf for the millions of visitors who land Mongolian border where green, black, rose, and white marble has projects on the mainland, ultimately losing much of his wealth and become a sunburned, skin-peeling Mercury.” — Jack London, on these fair shores each year, as well as for the millions more who watch the Surfing: The Royal Sport, 1907 professional tournaments that are broadcast from the Aloha State each winter. `Anaeho`omalu Bay, fronting Waikoloa Beach `Anaeho`omalu Bay, and Pueos as having the been carved for more than 2000 years — the Hemmeters traveled, on a failed attempt to build a supersize casino in New Orleans. But golf in Hawai`i has a long and noble It wasn’t until 1962, though, with the open- Resort, is known to Hawai`i Island surfers as best “high-performance waves” on this side of history, dating back to the founding of O`ahu’s ing of the Robert Trent Jones Sr.-designed Royal one of the better spots to catch waves along the the island. Moanalua Golf Course in 1898 by Samuel Mills Ka`anapali North Course on Maui, that resort Kohala Coast. There’s also Pua Ka`ilima Cultural Surf Park Damon and his Scottish groundskeeper, Donald golf saw its first boom in Hawai`i. After Maui, “When it’s 20 feet at Jaws (one of Maui’s at Kawaihae, which hosts an annual longboard MacIntyre. In those days, sugar was king in the Jones and his then-apprentice son, Bobby, went renowned surf spots) it’s 6-8 feet here,” says competition. This break is said to have been a often negotiating prices with sign language. In Hawai`i, though — having built the Hyatt Regency islands, and Scottish plantation managers were from Hawai`i Island to work on the Mauna Kea photographer Kirk Aeder, a resident of Hawai`i favorite spot of Ka`ahumanu, wife of Hawai`i’s common. In several cases, these men fashioned Golf Course which opened in 1964. Island since the early 1990s, whose resume revered Kamehameha the Great, who himself golf courses for recreation as they would have At Mauna Kea, one of the seminal moments includes published work in Surfer, The Surfer’s was born in North Kohala and learned to surf played in their homeland. in Hawai`i golf course architecture occurred: Journal, and other international magazines that along the Kona-Kohala Coast. Scottish-born Alex Bell, who settled in Jones discovered that lava rock could be focus on the sport. “But the surf here is cleaner “Surrounded by an endless ocean with no “The scale of the art was often so big,” the Waikīkī, the Hyatt Regency Maui, the Westin Hawai`i around 1900, designed Oahu Country crushed into a very usable base for grass.